Rationale & original idea

The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called "Summer Time" many places in the world) is to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Countries have different change dates. If you live near the equator, day and night are nearly the same length (12 hours). But elsewhere on Earth, there is much more daylight in the Summer than in the Winter. The closer you live to the North or South pole, the longer the summers. Thus, Daylight Saving Time (Summer Time) is not helpful in the tropics, and countries near the equator do not usually change their clocks.

Opposition to Daylight Saving

Occasionally people complain about daylight saving time. A frequent complaint is the inconvenience of changing many clocks, and adjusting to a new sleep schedule. For most people, this is a mere nuisance, but some people with sleep disorders find this transition very difficult. Sometimes people recommend a "compromise" wherein we would set out clocks 1/2 hour forward year round. While this may sound appealing at first , it is not a good solution. In the winter months, when daylight saving is not occurring, our clock is divided such that noon should be the middle of the day (although since time zones are so wide, this does not always happen). In the summer, when the daylight is so long, we want to shift a full hour to the evening. Some countries set their clocks to fractional time zones, for example, Kathmandu, Nepal is 5:45 hours ahead of Universal Time; and Calcutta (Kolkatta), India is 5:30 ahead. This is because their country straddles international time zones; it is not an attempt to compromise and have half Daylight Saving Time year-round. Other Resources